1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a stroller, and more particularly to a stroller wheel structure, which can provide a simple and rigid support for the stroller so as to prolong the service life span and minimize the manufacturing cost of the stroller.
2. Description of Related Arts
A stroller becomes a necessity to every family having a young child or baby and is considered as a convenient tool to carry the baby or young child from place to place such as foot traveling and shopping. It is known that each stroller comprises stroller wheels to enhance the mobility of the stroller.
The stroller generally comprises a hub connected to the stroller frame in order to rotatably mount the stroller wheels to a stroller frame. Accordingly, there are mainly two types of stroller wheels, which are the solid core wheel and the inflatable wheel.
The solid core wheel is made of foaming material and commonly manufactured by the plastic molding technique. Since the solid core wheel is relatively economical and easy to manufacture, most manufacturer should like to install the solid core wheel to the stroller. Moreover, the solid core wheel is durable and prolongs the service life span of the stroller. However, the solid core wheel has a major drawback. In order to mount the solid core wheels on the hub, the hub must have an outer circumferential surface to engage with an inner circumferential side of the solid core wheel respectively, as shown in FIG. 1A. However, a rotational force generated from each solid core wheel will tend to pull the wheel out of the hub. In other words, the solid core wheel may be detached from the stroller accidentally. Since the baby is soft and weak, any mistake may cause unwanted injury to the baby.
As shown in FIG. 1B, the inflatable wheel generally comprises a rim having a stem hole coaxially mounted on the end of the hub, a wheel tire encirclingly mounted on the rim, and an inflatable bladder received in the wheel tire. The inflatable bladder comprises a valve stem extended to an exterior of the rim through the stem hole. A main advantage of the inflatable wheel is to provide a better gripping force between the wheel tire and the ground so as to prevent the stroller from skidding accidentally. However, such complicated structure of the inflatable wheel will highly increase the cost of the stroller. Moreover, the user may merely check the wheel pressure of the inflatable wheel to ensure the best and safe performance of the inflatable wheel.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a stroller wheel structure which enhances the endurance of the wheel for the stroller in a cost effective way, so as to prolong the service life span of the stroller.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a stroller wheel structure, wherein the solid core wheel is integrally mounted on the hub to provide a rigid support of the stroller. In other words, the vibrating force generated from the rotational movement of the wheel will not damage the attachment between the hub and the wheel, so as to prevent the stroller wheel from being detached from the stroller accidentally.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a stroller wheel structure, wherein the wheel body is made of elastic material for providing a cushion effect of the stroller wheel structure so as to enhance the comfortability of the stroller.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a stroller wheel structure, wherein the manufacturing process of the wheel is extremely simple and easy by the conventional technology, so as to reduce the manufacturing cost of the stroller incorporating with the stroller wheel structure of the present invention.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a stroller wheel structure, wherein no expensive or complicate mechanical structure is required to be employed in the present invention in order to achieve the above mentioned objects. Therefore, the present invention substantially provides an economic and efficient solution for attaching to the wheel to the stroller and providing reinforced support configuration to the stroller.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a stroller wheel structure for a stroller, comprising:
a wheel frame comprising a hub body for rotatably mounting to the stroller and a ring shaped rim body, which is coaxially mounted to the hub body, having a first side, an opposed second side, and a plurality of transverse through slots spacedly provided around an outer peripheral portion of the rim body to communicate the first side with the second side; and
a stroller wheel comprising a solid core wheel body, having a ring shape, coaxially mounted on the rim body, two spaced apart sidewalls radially extended from inner circumferential edges of the wheel body to cover the first and second sides of the rim body respectively, and a plurality of reinforcing ribs integrally extended between the sidewalls through the transverse through slots of the rim body respectively, so as to substantially mount the stroller wheel around the wheel frame.